Cuentacuentos
Written by: Juan Villoro | Company: Teatro y su Doble | Cast: Aline Kuppenheim, Loreto Moya, Catalina Bize, Ricardo Parraguez, Camila Cuesta | Director, general designer and audiovisual producer: Aline Kuppenheim | Coproduced by: the Teatro a Mil Foundation.
Aline Kuppenheim
Director
For the love of puppet theater
With a long career in film, television and theater, this actress, theater director, illustrator and visual artist (Barcelona, 1969) has dedicated her life to theater for more than a decade. In 2005, she founded Teatro y su Doble (formerly Teatro Milagros), with whom she has created touching puppet plays aimed at both infant and adult audiences, using intricate puppets she and her team have made. She has also had starring roles in movies (Machuca, Una mujer fantástica) and important TV series, such as Ecos del desierto, Prófugos and Bala loca.
Juan Villoro
Juan Villoro
The playwright
Born in Mexico in 1956, this outstanding writer and essayist is the author of multiple novels, stories, columns, theater plays, movie scripts, translations and essays. Among his books are El testigo (winner of the Herralde award in 2004) and Llamadas de Ámsterdam (2007). He is one of Mexico’s most important writers, winning the Manuel Rojas award in 2018, one of the most prestigious prizes in the Spanish-speaking world. He started writing for theater aged 14, but his work only saw the light of day after he turned 50.
Teatro y su Doble
Teatro y su Doble
The company
Teatro y su Doble was formed in 2005 as the Milagros Theater to experiment with and create new theatrical styles and different theatrical tools, with puppets eventually becoming their tool of choice. The actors-puppeteers are at the beck and call of these inanimate objects, conveying emotions and bringing scripts to life thanks to the audience’s willingness to believe. The company has already performed other outstanding pieces, such as Capote, Pedro y el lobo, Sobre la cuerda floja and Feos. The last three have been co-produced by the Teatro a Mil Foundation.
“Chilean theater troupe Teatro y Su Doble, utilizing multimedia storytelling, borrowing techniques from Bunraku-style puppetry and animation, create lives lived”.
–David Walters, The Front Row Center
“Actress and talented illustrator Aline Kuppenheim brings an extraordinary example of animation to the theater”.
–Pedro Labra, El Mercurio
-It’s the latest piece by Teatro y su Doble, a company that has spent 15 years developing a stunning kind of theater using puppets that are life-like, nimble and capable of showing emotion.
-It’s a story that is particularly relevant these days, since it talks about the importance of politics and why great transformations need active citizens, not just bystanders who complain but don’t do anything to change the way things are.
-To find out more about children’s author Juan Villoro, a renowned Mexican writer who has delved into the world of novels, newspaper columns, theater plays and texts like this and El taxi de los peluches.
Puppet theater: In the book Aproximación al teatro de títeres by Argentine puppeteer Juan Enrique Acuña, this genre is defined as ‘a group of artistic disciplines and techniques through which a specific kind of show is created, performed and organized, characterized by the use of certain expressive material elements’. Four different basic techniques are usually mentioned: stick, glove, shadow and either mobile or string puppets. All these forms have been improved upon by technological advances and experimentation. “Puppet theater is capable of representing the errors of society, politics, religion and human life in general”, says Cuban theater magazine Conjunto, which is why it’s a mistake to associate this type of performance only with children.
-Find out more about the other plays by Teatro y su Doble on their YouTube channel
-El hámster del Presidente read by its author, Juan Villoro, at the 2019 Guadalajara Book Festival.
On Twitter, @teatroysudoble
On Instagram, @teatroysudoble
PRODUCE
EL HÁMSTER DEL PRESIDENTE
By Teatro y su Doble | Directed by Aline Kuppenheim
- Chile
- Spanish
- 32 minutes
- Todo público
Known for its extraordinary work with puppets, Teatro y su Doble expands its creative scope with this production based on the story by Juan Villoro.
This new play by Teatro y su Doble uses a story by Mexican writer Juan Villoro to talk about issues like solidarity and the team work needed to build democracy. The president has a coat with 24 pockets that he never takes off, even when it’s hot. Not even his closest advisors know about the secret he keeps in one of these pockets: a little hamster called Genaro III, who can be either cute or fickle and grumpy. The head of state has appointed this hamster as his private secretary because he helps him make decisions and keeps him awake during long, boring meetings.
When the president decides to ban candy in the country, a smart little boy called Ruy decides to take part in the protests that occur. He finds out all about the hamster and the news hits the headlines. What happens afterwards will change both his life and that of his family, as well as the destiny of the country.
EL HÁMSTER DEL PRESIDENTE
By Teatro y su Doble | Directed by Aline Kuppenheim
- Chile
- Spanish
- 32 minutes
- Todo público
Known for its extraordinary work with puppets, Teatro y su Doble expands its creative scope with this production based on the story by Juan Villoro.
This new play by Teatro y su Doble uses a story by Mexican writer Juan Villoro to talk about issues like solidarity and the team work needed to build democracy. The president has a coat with 24 pockets that he never takes off, even when it’s hot. Not even his closest advisors know about the secret he keeps in one of these pockets: a little hamster called Genaro III, who can be either cute or fickle and grumpy. The head of state has appointed this hamster as his private secretary because he helps him make decisions and keeps him awake during long, boring meetings.
When the president decides to ban candy in the country, a smart little boy called Ruy decides to take part in the protests that occur. He finds out all about the hamster and the news hits the headlines. What happens afterwards will change both his life and that of his family, as well as the destiny of the country.
Written by: Juan Villoro | Company: Teatro y su Doble | Cast: Aline Kuppenheim, Loreto Moya, Catalina Bize, Ricardo Parraguez, Camila Cuesta | Director, general designer and audiovisual producer: Aline Kuppenheim | Coproduced by: the Teatro a Mil Foundation.
Aline Kuppenheim
Director
For the love of puppet theater
With a long career in film, television and theater, this actress, theater director, illustrator and visual artist (Barcelona, 1969) has dedicated her life to theater for more than a decade. In 2005, she founded Teatro y su Doble (formerly Teatro Milagros), with whom she has created touching puppet plays aimed at both infant and adult audiences, using intricate puppets she and her team have made. She has also had starring roles in movies (Machuca, Una mujer fantástica) and important TV series, such as Ecos del desierto, Prófugos and Bala loca.
Juan Villoro
Juan Villoro
The playwright
Born in Mexico in 1956, this outstanding writer and essayist is the author of multiple novels, stories, columns, theater plays, movie scripts, translations and essays. Among his books are El testigo (winner of the Herralde award in 2004) and Llamadas de Ámsterdam (2007). He is one of Mexico’s most important writers, winning the Manuel Rojas award in 2018, one of the most prestigious prizes in the Spanish-speaking world. He started writing for theater aged 14, but his work only saw the light of day after he turned 50.
Teatro y su Doble
Teatro y su Doble
The company
Teatro y su Doble was formed in 2005 as the Milagros Theater to experiment with and create new theatrical styles and different theatrical tools, with puppets eventually becoming their tool of choice. The actors-puppeteers are at the beck and call of these inanimate objects, conveying emotions and bringing scripts to life thanks to the audience’s willingness to believe. The company has already performed other outstanding pieces, such as Capote, Pedro y el lobo, Sobre la cuerda floja and Feos. The last three have been co-produced by the Teatro a Mil Foundation.
“Chilean theater troupe Teatro y Su Doble, utilizing multimedia storytelling, borrowing techniques from Bunraku-style puppetry and animation, create lives lived”.
–David Walters, The Front Row Center
“Actress and talented illustrator Aline Kuppenheim brings an extraordinary example of animation to the theater”.
–Pedro Labra, El Mercurio
-It’s the latest piece by Teatro y su Doble, a company that has spent 15 years developing a stunning kind of theater using puppets that are life-like, nimble and capable of showing emotion.
-It’s a story that is particularly relevant these days, since it talks about the importance of politics and why great transformations need active citizens, not just bystanders who complain but don’t do anything to change the way things are.
-To find out more about children’s author Juan Villoro, a renowned Mexican writer who has delved into the world of novels, newspaper columns, theater plays and texts like this and El taxi de los peluches.
Puppet theater: In the book Aproximación al teatro de títeres by Argentine puppeteer Juan Enrique Acuña, this genre is defined as ‘a group of artistic disciplines and techniques through which a specific kind of show is created, performed and organized, characterized by the use of certain expressive material elements’. Four different basic techniques are usually mentioned: stick, glove, shadow and either mobile or string puppets. All these forms have been improved upon by technological advances and experimentation. “Puppet theater is capable of representing the errors of society, politics, religion and human life in general”, says Cuban theater magazine Conjunto, which is why it’s a mistake to associate this type of performance only with children.
-Find out more about the other plays by Teatro y su Doble on their YouTube channel
-El hámster del Presidente read by its author, Juan Villoro, at the 2019 Guadalajara Book Festival.
On Twitter, @teatroysudoble
On Instagram, @teatroysudoble
PRODUCE